Myriad of problems, must vent!

[clintonslayton76]

I have received a great deal of help from FTDNA, and I admit that one of my biggest problems was probably caused by my rookie mistake of paying for the "wrong" transfer kit, but that mistake was a result of the extremely confusing marketing of their products, and it does not explain the mysterious goings-on since starting my YDNA Project.
After setting up the Generalfund (and getting great help with that from Janine C), I am trying to recover from the loss of over 50 results dropped by Ancestry.
Since establishing that most of my initial members are going to be manually transferred with confirmatory sheets from Relative Genetics, Ancestry, etc. we have had maybe three of our 13 (showing) members whose results seemed to proceed in a timely fashion.
1) We still have two transfers that were entered months ago, who do not appear on the grid. These are not lab-related, they are data-entry issues;
2) We still one member whose results routinely disappear from the grid, it happened in Oct and has happened the day I write this;
3) We have a member who has ordered his test kit a month ago, still has not rec'd, but his results on our grid show a HAPLO number from his manual "transfer," which is supposedly not possible.
4) we have a member whose DNA page says he has PENDING results for four DYS markers that already appear on his page (??);
I can say that most of the responses from FTDNA regarding the costs of using the service have been handled in a friendly and efficient manner, but nothing else has been.
We have yet to have a full-price volunteer for this Project, but have had some FTDNA members entered into the grid smoothly. The problem now is: there is a complete lack of confidence in FTDNA on the part of those who have elected to retest, because the communications regarding the status of their testing is either non-existent or nonsensical.
This is discouraging us from sponsoring or seeking a fresh volunteer to our Project.
Also, the Ancestry Projects featured a way to look for people who were willling to disclose that they were researching or had donated DNA for our surname. FTDNA is a closed book to me. I have no idea who might be out there with results, I have to hope that they see my Project from the Surname list. This seems a bit too private for me, since it has been my experience that DNA donors are mortal, and Y-Search, admittedly not under control of FTDNA, has become useless. And yet is the tool FTDNA still encourages on its pages.

Is anyone else experiencing these issues or could comment on whether I am an idiot and all these things are normal and I am just not seeing tools that are out there for me to use?

[dna]

You are not an idiot

I cannot comment on specifics, since on purpose we only test here.

However, there is a very delicate balance between a desire to have DNA tested and compared and retaining some privacy and anonymity and finding family, etc.

I am attributing some of awkwardness you were seeing to privacy controls.

W.

[RobertaMarques]

There are problems, but they rearranged the myftdna layout twice. Isn't it wonderful? The moving box is really nice, even though I have 2 kits on the same email and only got the 'reward' on one of them.

I think they should work on engine first, then move to the esthetics of the page.

[efgen]

Hi Clinton,

Sorry to hear that you've been having these issues. Have you emailed Janine about them? She should be able to help you get them resolved.

Without knowing the specific kit numbers, I can give you some educated guesses about each of the issues:

1) I can think of 3 possible causes for this:

a) The transfer hasn't been verified/approved (though it certainly should be by now)
b) The customer has changed his settings to not display his results on the project website (but if you're not seeing them in your GAP, then this doesn't apply)
c) A technical issue that our IT team will need to resolve

2) Two possible causes: b & c above

3) Haplogroup predictions are done with as few as 12 markers. So as long as the person has the upgrade in process, he can certainly get a prediction based on the transferred values.

4) The one showing 4 markers pending even though they were tested is likely due to a glitch that caused some transfer kits to get tested for the complete panels (lucky customers!) insted of just the 4 missing markers. I believe the 4 markers just need to be manually marked as complete in our system.

Also, the Ancestry Projects featured a way to look for people who were willling to disclose that they were researching or had donated DNA for our surname. FTDNA is a closed book to me. I have no idea who might be out there with results, I have to hope that they see my Project from the Surname list.

The FTDNA database is not publicly searchable that way. You can, however, search for a specific surname to find out how many customers with the surname are in the database, and also to find projects that specifically list the surname as being among its membership. You may find customers with the surname who joined geographic or haplogroup projects before the surname project was created. Just use the search icon at the top right of the Family Tree DNA homepage (www.familytreedna.com) to do this search.

Also, FTDNA staff can send a one-time email to customers with your project's surname(s) who haven't yet joined, to let them know about it. This is also something that Janine can help with, and I believe the regular Customer Support staff can as well.

Elise

[clintonslayton76]

Thanks for reply

>> Have you emailed Janine about them?

Constantly! I know I have a big red dot on my file at FTDNA, because I was asking WHY almost every day, certainly every week, why things were so inconsistent at FTDNA. Janine has been most helpful for those things that are under her control. I am copy this entire posting and will send to her in case her nose starts itching.

We have had some results showing immediately, some never showing, some showing incomplete that are complete acc to FTDNA, and vice versa, one showing and then disappearing, as well as a payment for a kit that has never been sent.

All references to our grid are seen here (copy into another tab window to play along):
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/SSSFP_YDNA/

>> a) The transfer hasn't been verified/approved (though it certainly should be by now)

Answer: You said it, these transfers were done over a month ago. We pay to see these results and they just float off into the ether. The two we are waiting for B13701 and B13703 were specifically money donations to our fund, and the money donors are somewhat miffed that they cannot see what they paid for, since they sponsored these results for the original $200 testing and cannot see them online anywhere now.

>> b) The customer has changed his settings to not display his results on the project website (but if you're not seeing them in your GAP, then this doesn't apply)

Answer: I am the customer for disappearing transfer because the donor is dead. I control his settings, and I do not change them. That cannot be the issue with this kit (B13702). Several of our donors have passed away and they released their results to me for the continuance of this project. No member in our group (living or dead) has/had any interest in having DNA results for any reason other than to show on this grid.
Only one transferee was still extant and willing to pay for an upgrade, and he has been waiting for his test kit since October.

4) The one showing 4 markers pending even though they were tested is likely due to a glitch that caused some transfer kits to get tested for the complete panels...I believe the 4 markers just need to be manually marked as complete in our system.

Then how do I get someone to do that for kit 359061? Or verify that that is the case? The customer's kit is tagged "incomplete" by your technicians, that is how they responded to my request for why his kit had more markers than mine, although mine is marked "complete." More about this below.

3) Haplogroup predictions are done with as few as 12 markers So as long as the person has the upgrade in process...

I am happy to hear this, but this is the man who ordered a test kit in October (B13704) and still has not received it, so his upgrade is not exactly in process. He has received nothing from FTDNA re his missing test kit, and this man is in his 80s. Time is of the essence...

Here, in a horrible black and moldy nutshell, is the essence of my personal frustration at not seeing all of my own markers (351719):
When I first ordered a transfer from Ancestry, I mistakenly ordered a 25-marker transfer because I assumed that ordering the FTDNA retest would fill in all my scores up to 46 that eventually came from Sorenson Genomics. (My tests with Relative Genetics were structured differently from the later tests they did for Ancestry). When I read the FTDNA transfer page options, that is the one that seemed right. However, I was wrong, and by not ordering the bigger transfer, I was only allowed to enter 25 of my 37-46 scores for the YDNA transfer page. I got with Janine or someone, and they clarified that I should have bought the "bigger" transfer kit, and since it cost the same, it could be "upgraded" by FTDNA, but I never got to re-enter the 37-46 markers for the YDNA transfer. I did sent the confirmation sheet that showed all of these markers. My error was in thinking that the initial YDNA transfer would have had no effect on the total number of markers showing after my retesting, I assumed that FTDNA would have tested for all of those, but...
Since these doings, I (351719) have never seen all of the combination of RG/Ancestry scores and FTDNA scores on my grid, while my cousin's kit 359061 (as an example) had the 46-marker YDNA transfer to begin with, and retested. He shows ALL of the markers that mine should show. In fact, the transfers that I did manually for others in my haplogroup, who have not yet retested (B11387, B13571, B13704), all show more markers than I do, which cannot be right. The "missing" markers from my initial YDNA transfer 444, 446, 461, 462, 452, 445, A10, 1B07, 635, remain missing, even though they were on the confirmatory sheet that I sent with my initial transfer.

I simply want to see all of my tested markers on this grid, as I did on Ancestry's. Please tell me what to do to make that right.

I know I have raised several issues here, but you asked if I have contacted FTDNA about these issues, and the answer is, yes, a lot. That's why I use a lot of BOLD, I am not shouting at you, there is just so much to deal with on the FTDNA Project grid with 13 members, when our 51 member Ancestry Project never had a single issue to contact them about.

[clintonslayton76]

Reponse from FTDNA

The FTDNA answer and solution(s) to my "missing" scores noted in my previous posting.

Acc to Diane, there are two options, one is to repurchase the Y46 transfer at $58. This would gen a new test kit number and a retest. Seems odd, to have to go through that to see 6 scores that FTDNA does not test for in the first place.

However, Diane has held out the possibility that those scores might be added manually, and I am still waiting for the response on that. Obviously this is the preferred solution and I will certainly not balk at paying for this service, but so far, FTDNA is not planning to charge for this.

So, here is a question: if I have to go for the $58 transfer after all, and/or, later, down the road, go for a 67 score upgrade, FTDNA says that that will gen a new kit number, so what happens to my previous kit information online? Do I inherit all previous scores from that kit PLUS the ones that are newly tested? It would very much hack me off to go through all of this to get my original 46 markers, and then find 6 of them gone again from a "larger" panel test just because FTDNA does not test for them. I do not understand the proprietary nature of the "standard" that FTDNA uses, but I do understand that the scores I got from Sorenson are valid scores that should not be ignored. Further, those scores show on all of the transferred 46 markers I have added, except, so far, for mine. That has been explained, but I'm jiggered if I can understand how a customer is supposed to make heads or tails of the Transfer Landing page with the various options, all of which cost the same ($19 for transfer, $39 for retest). I had the bad luck to pick the wrong one, so it is all on me.

Any help with this question will be appreciated, and also, the hope that this can be solved without retesting is at least mooted, and again, I appreciate that, esp if it turns out to be do-able.

[dna]

I would cling to the idea that the missing scores might be added manually.

Somehow fixing the existing kit appears to me to be conceptually easier.

W.

[clintonslayton76]

And yet...

It never happened. They were never "fixed" and all communications re this problem are somewhere in the wind.